'Handcuffed, blindfolded and physically assaulted': What happened to WION's Anas Mallick in Kabul?
Story highlights
Anas Mallick arrived in Kabul on Wednesday evening and a day after that he was taking general visuals as part of his extensive coverage of one year of Taliban rule in Afghanistan. But he was abducted.
WION's correspondent Anas Mallick and his team were "dragged" out of the car and "physically assaulted" by the Taliban when he was reporting in Afghanistan's capital Kabul.
Anas arrived in Kabul on Wednesday evening and a day after that he was taking general visuals for his extensive coverage of one year of Taliban rule in Afghanistan.
It coincided with the killing of Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri as claimed by the United States, which, by the way, is being questioned by the Taliban.
The Taliban said on Thursday that they do not know about Zawahiri’s presence in Afghanistan. They, in fact, even said that the "fact is that America invaded our territory and violated all international principles."
Condemning the action, the Taliban said that "if such action is repeated, the responsibility of any consequences will be on the United States of America."
WION has reported all the developments on Zawahiri's killing.
But it appears that the Taliban are threatened by our ground reporting in Kabul as WION's reporter was abducted while he was reporting, with all the necessary permissions.
Notably, Anas was allowed to walk free but the local producer and our driver are still being held by the Taliban. They said that they will be releasing them soon, but there's no update.
ALSO READ | WION correspondent Anas Mallick shows torn clothes and injuries as he reveals his trauma
Here's what exactly happened to him:
Anas says...
"We were duly accredited, we had all the press credentials and were filming general visuals when we were intercepted, taken out of the car... dragged off the car to be very precise. Our phones were taken away.
And then we were physically assaulted. My crew was assaulted and I was assaulted as well.
After some while, we were shifted from the place where were intercepted to what we know is the intelligence unit of the Afghan-Taliban. We were handcuffed, blindfolded, and faced the wildest accusations and after that were questioned thoroughly on our journalistic credentials as well. Personal questions were also hurled at us."
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